Facilitated

36| Dear Internet Trolls, Our Spellcheck Works

• The Facility Denver • Episode 36

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We unpack a defamatory review, the limits of what we can say under HIPAA, and how to defend a care process without violating privacy. We pivot from online noise to the patient wins, boundaries, and structures that make functional medicine work.

• clinic philosophy of diagnosing biology, not disease
• why HIPAA restricts responses to public claims
• how to defend process without personal details
• importance of aligned expectations and boundaries
• patterns in online reviews and reader behavior
• focusing on positive outcomes and gratitude
• practical communication norms for effective care

We recorded an Instagram Reel AFTER this episode recording that ultimately sums it all up in 90 seconds. 🙃 Alas, here's the long-form version since we still needed an episode for the week. 

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SPEAKER_03:

Welcome to Facilitated, where we bring you real stories, strategies, and science from the world of functional medicine. I'm Dr. Mitchell Rasmussen, a functional medicine practitioner.

SPEAKER_02:

And I'm Kate Darty, a certified nutritionist. We are the owners of the facility, a functional medicine clinic here in Denver, Colorado.

SPEAKER_03:

We help people improve their biology and get out of their own way. In my view, our work is about getting to know the person with the condition much more than it's about understanding which condition the person has. As I always say, diagnose the biology, not the disease.

SPEAKER_02:

On this podcast, we break down complex health topics, share real patient cases, anonymized, of course, and explore cutting-edge wellness strategies so you can make informed decisions about your health. Quick heads up before we dive in. This podcast is for education and general information only. We're here to share insights, not to diagnose or treat. So if you're dealing with a health issue, chat with a qualified healthcare provider before making any changes. All right, let's get into it.

SPEAKER_03:

What's happening today, Kate?

SPEAKER_02:

Hmm. We're we came in the studio to record something else and were too distracted by things happening.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Uh it's e it was easy today to focus on uh patient visits. But when we start to talk about, I mean, especially today, we wanted to talk about like our vision and all this stuff, and now here we are facing uh what would you say?

SPEAKER_02:

A series of defamatory I mean, I would just say it's a troll at this point.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. We have somebody who has left us now four different versions of a one-star Google review filled with bullshit, yeah, lies, outright misrepresentations of the truth, and we'll delete it and then redo it, and every version of it continues to have spelling errors that are almost impossible to read, and we'll have like I said to you when we walked in here, I think this person is thinking they're sounding clever and creative, especially the your mileage may vary. That's been three line, yeah. Three different versions, whether it be Y-O-U-R-E with no apostrophe or hasn't been right once, and now trying to say something about knowledge and skill. What sucks is because of HIPAA. Oh, this is what makes me so mad. Because of HIPAA, we can't call out the facts directly to somebody. We can't acknowledge if this person ever saw us, we can't acknowledge interactions or things that we were concerned about immediately, if there were them. So I would like to, and what I created last night is a general outline of how our clinic works. No specifics about whether or not any person was ever seeing us, but there's so much more that I would want to say that I can't because it's the people that we don't do well with are the people that expect I'm speaking generally, they're the people that expect to become pen pals.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. They have unrealistic expectations.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, now that reference won't make sense.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh yeah, he's changed it.

SPEAKER_03:

The we and yesterday with that new patient in the morning, after seeing the initial iteration of this review that's now been changed to the fourth version. It could be the fifth by now, and maybe it's gone again. That reminded me why we do what we do. Absolutely, motivated and humble, intelligent, educated, but so freaking humble and ready to learn. Had her notepad out.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, I was recapping the day with my husband last night, and of course, sharing like this is what's going on, and it's a big negative in our life. But what I found myself reflecting on was we had amazing visits yesterday.

SPEAKER_03:

One of our long friends, he's been in our lives for a long time, gave us so much gratitude, and didn't do that because he saw Google. That was just natural. Yes. And I remember I got up from that first visit yesterday morning and I said, Kate, F, that guy, this is why we do what we do.

SPEAKER_02:

We are reminded over and over and over why we do what we do. The people who have responded and sh just been there in our corner. That's what we do. That's what we that's what I choose to focus on in it.

SPEAKER_03:

We have to, otherwise, because as we grow, there will be more trolls. Of course. And I I guess in some ways it's just comes with it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, what a blessing that this is the first one we've had to severate on.

SPEAKER_03:

But it it really hurts because of the lack of my ability to outright defend the facts as they stand.

SPEAKER_02:

You want to know a fact though?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I would never make typos.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Yeah. And let's say that generally speaking, if someone were to send us something riddled with typos, and then we were to bring that forward into a new document with our updates, I would never feel the need to fix, say, like the spelling of I'm generally like CoQ10. You know, I call it ubiquinal. Some people call it ubiquinol. You know, and sometimes when people will write that, they'll put it in a spreadsheet that's not modifiable. So a screenshot. It's hard for me. I don't know how maybe I'm not good at computers, but I don't know how to change little things. So I'm just thinking generally, like, I would probably not fix that. And let's say if someone were to completely misspell a statin and I know how to spell it, it's not my job to correct it and to make a new screenshot. So I'm just kind of generally spitballing that. I would never do that. Sure. I can't think of a time when that was relevant, but I'm just kind of thinking here generally how I would handle that. Yeah, I I would also uh put dosing of things that is actually available on the market. I wouldn't make up doses to make my provider's job much more difficult. Scouring the internet to try to find products that I was taking. I would never do that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

You cut that piece out.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it went too far.

SPEAKER_03:

Man, it's so distracting today.

SPEAKER_02:

It is.

SPEAKER_03:

We have so much to be blessed for, to be excited about. And this, you know, my uncle was a a PA, you know, rest in peace, Uncle Tom. He was an emergency room PA for so many years, and I uh we always hit on medical things. We'd have the coolest conversations toward the end of his life. We'd have these really special conversations, and he'd like make this lowly chiropractor feel pretty good about what he knew. And you know, and one time I asked him, you know, how many lives have you saved? And he looked at me and he said, You don't remember that. You remember how many lives you lost when you were working, and it's so true. It's like I perseverate on the clients that are you know 30% better when nobody else could help them, but I'm just so unsatisfied with their outcomes, and I sometimes forget like all the positives going on because that's the majority of what we get to see, so it just sucks. I know we'll well, first of all, we're gonna deal with this.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Because I believe that a one-star Google review is a prime opportunity for a brand to defend itself because I think that's what people will see. Absolutely, go to the lowest review, or in this case, it'll probably be the most recent review because it if it keeps keeps popping up at the top, yeah, yeah. Someday it'll get varied, and then all of a sudden, two years from now. Oh. But I think it's an opportunity to and again, you can't set the record straight, but you can totally defend your general process, and that's what I think we're prepared to do.

SPEAKER_02:

I did go down a fun little rabbit trail.

SPEAKER_03:

What's that?

SPEAKER_02:

Now I've started on clicking on people who've left reviews to see what other reviews they've left.

SPEAKER_03:

You're speaking generally.

SPEAKER_02:

Generally, like I went through our recent reviews and decided to see what else people are reviewing.

SPEAKER_03:

And was there any like one that stood out, like a maybe a recent review or maybe not so recent where the pattern was interesting to you? Of how that person was leaving reviews elsewhere?

SPEAKER_02:

I I think it's a actually a pattern for everybody. I think people either leave a review for someone they're very, very satisfied with or someone who they're very, very unsatisfied with. And most of our it lets we have 94 Google reviews.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, it currently is going between 94 and 95 every year.

SPEAKER_02:

94 to 95 Google reviews, 4.9 rating. Go do that math. And so most of the people who have selected five stars are also reviewing other businesses at five stars. Most of the people who select one star are also reviewing other businesses at one star.

SPEAKER_03:

It's an interesting pattern. Like it's kind of like your reality becomes what you choose to focus on. And I don't know if it says so much about us because we are we're forced to believe the what we hear every day from people. How happy they are that they have people that'll listen to them. You know, boundaries are healthy.

SPEAKER_02:

That's been a major lesson in all of it.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, and I've learned that in my own personal life with friends, and you know, and I think you do a pretty good job with boundaries, and I think I've been largely boundary-less in a lot of ways. I open myself up to a lot of exhaustion in the past of like overextending for people I love because I feel bad, like say charging them when they want our help. But what you realize with boundaries is it creates uh stability because then there's this expectation of specifically with care, you know, they will deliver on what I pay for. And I think when generally speaking, when boundaries are uh spoken out loud and then they are broken over and over again, at some point an an individual with boundaries must say enough is enough. And it's crazy in life how some people take that so strangely.

SPEAKER_02:

Agreed.

SPEAKER_03:

Generally speaking. I mean, that's all I got today. I'm so distracted and frustrated. I was excited to talk about other things. We'll get there. Okay. So, listeners, if you haven't yet left a Google review, that might be a good time to do that for us. For Mitchell's self-esteem, for Mitchell's parasympathetic tone, and uh for the Google algorithm.

SPEAKER_02:

For the good of everybody else.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, because that's how, like you said, that's how people primarily find us. It's either word of mouth or let's see if these people are legit and they've got a heart. And the vast majority of what you'll read on our Google reviews is just that.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

For more about what we do at the facility, check out our website, www.thefacilitydenver.com. You can also follow us on Instagram at the facility Denver for extra tips, behind the scenes fun, and updates on new episodes. Thanks for listening. Now go facilitate your own health, and we'll see you next time.